Finding Customers for Your Consulting Business

Topics to be covered

  • What you will learn
    • Use word of mouth
    • Give away free samples of your work
    • Consider volunteering
    • Recognize that not everyone will find you by email
    • Turn all of these efforts into a regular work habit
    • Addendum: Keeping your existing customers

Identify this movie

Use word of mouth

  • Birth announcement
  • Current customers
  • Staying in touch

Birth announcement

  • “I’m embarking on a new career move, starting a small statistical consulting business, P.Mean Consulting. I’m so excited. Wish me luck.” Send to
    • Family,
    • Friends,
    • Colleagues from your former job
    • Former professors from your degree program
  • Use email and/or social media
  • Send only once

Thank you note

  • “Thanks for involving me in this interesting project. If you have anything similar in the future, I’d love to continue our collaboration.”
    • Send one week/one month after final payment
    • Send only once

Stay in regular touch

  • No direct solicitation
    • “I heard that your youngest is leaving for college. What’s it like being an empty nester?”
    • “I bet your whole town is celebrating with two straight Super Bowl victories.”
    • “I saw this NYTimes article about long COVID, and it reminded me of your work.”
  • Not too often, every six months?

Business cards

  • Hand out at every event
    • “Good to chat with you. Here’s a card. Call me or email me if you want to talk some more.”
  • Write something on the back
    • “Ethics code for research”
  • Take their cards and follow-up
    • Business card = one (but only one) free spam
    • “I just wanted to say again how much I enjoyed your talk”

Email ticklers

  • Signature file
    • “New career! P.Mean Consulting”
    • “P.Mean Consulting. Now in our second year of business”
    • Short and sweet
  • Configure your email name
    • Not “Steve Simon”, use “Steve Simon, P.Mean Consulting”

Break #1

  • What you have learned
    • Use word of mouth
  • What’s coming next
    • Give away free samples of your work
  • Any questions?
  • What have you done to encourage word of mouth?

Identify this movie

Give away free samples of your work

  • Writing
    • Books
    • Newsletters
    • Blog posts
  • Talks
    • For statisticians
    • For non-statisticians
    • Let others promote your work

Write a book

  • Not easy and not for everyone
  • Much greater impact than journal articles
  • Self publishing option?

Publish a newsletter

  • Use an established vendor
    • Formal unsubscribe mechanism
  • Publish regularly
    • Monthly or less often

::: Create a blog

  • Similar to newsletters
    • Indexed by search engines
    • More impact than journal article
  • Publish regularly, but not too often
    • Fresh content
    • Recommendations
  • Stay away from politics

Give talks

  • Client audiences
  • Statistical audiences
    • Other statisticians will often send you referrals.

Let others promote your work, 1 of 4

Let others promote your work, 2 of 4

…He currently runs a small consulting business, P.Mean Consulting, as a sole proprietorship…

Let others promote your work, 3 of 4

…He is president of the Kansas City R Users Group and is looking for speakers for future Zoom meetings…

Let others promote your work, 4 of 4

His current research interests include using Bayesian models to forecast patient accrual in clinical trials and examining data sharing practices in peer-reviewed articles.

Break #2

  • What you have learned
    • Give away free samples of your work
  • What’s coming next
    • Consider volunteering

Break #3

  • What you have learned
    • Consider volunteering
  • What’s coming next
    • Recognize that not everyone will find you by email

Recognize that not everyone will find you by email

Break #4

  • What you have learned
    • Recognize that not everyone will find you by email
  • What’s coming next
    • Turn all of these efforts into a regular work habit

Turn all of these efforts into a regular work habit

[](sister-act.png “Image of Sister Mary Clarence (Whoopi Goldberg) from the movie Sister Act)

Break #5

  • What you have learned
    • Turn all of these efforts into a regular work habit
  • What’s coming next
    • Addendum: Keeping your existing customers

Keeping your existing customers

Summary

  • What you have learned
    • Use word of mouth
    • Give away free samples of your work
    • Consider volunteering
    • Recognize that not everyone will find you by email
    • Turn all of these efforts into a regular work habit
    • Addendum: Keeping your existing customers